Feminism vs. Feminazism

By Aarushi Dua

“If there ever comes a time when the women of the world come together purely and simply for the benefit of mankind, it will be a force such as the world has never known.”

Feminism is the new ‘hot potato’. It is something you might see every day on different social media platforms and a topic both men and women equally care about.

There are many misconceptions revolving around feminism. A lot of people just say “Stop being such a feminist!” jumping on to the bandwagon without actually knowing what it means. Men are often reluctant to be identified as a feminist when they actually might be one. Why?

Feminism Vs Feminazi

The most common perception is that feminism is about women being superior to men, which led to the birth of a new word, ‘feminazi’. A feminist is someone who fights for equal rights for both men and women. On the flip side, a feminazi is someone who is a radical feminist, someone who advocates feminism to an extensive degree, so much so that people start calling that feminist, a feminazi. A feminazi doesn’t understand the sole purpose of feminism and portrays women superior to men. They target men and try to pull them down forgetting that the sole purpose of feminism is to get women equal rights as men. The whole purpose of feminism is defeated the moment women are considered superior as it was always about equal rights not getting superior rights to men.

Feminists are trying to uplift women in this otherwise patriarchal society and so are feminazis. The only difference is that the feminazis are vocal and outspoken about their views, which comes off as - women trying to uplift themselves by putting men down, and believe us, that is so not the case. The whole purpose of this awareness being created gets defeated if the person standing next to you doesn’t understand the underlying thought behind your feminist behaviour and loosely passes it off as - “Ah, you’re just a feminazi.”

We need to understand what feminism means. We need to understand the difference between feminism and feminazi. We need to talk about feminism as often as we can. We need to push this movement forward and ask people - “I am a proud feminist, are you?”

Who Is A Feminist?

When you ask a guy are you a feminist? The most common responses are - “I don’t know”, “No, I am not”, “Why are you asking me this” and “Don’t bore me with all this feminism talk, please.”

But what the question really means is do you believe in or support equal rights for men and women? If the answer is yes, then you are a feminist.

People are often reluctant to call themselves a feminist, especially men. Why? There are a number of reasons why. For someone who doesn’t understand feminism, it is just a word linked to fighting for females. Another reason that contributes to reluctance is the existence of feminazi. Feminazis are the reason why people consider feminism only for women. Like Beyoncé once said, “If you are a man who believes your daughter should have the same opportunities and rights as your son, you’re a feminist. We need men and women to understand the double standards that still exist in the world, and we need to have a real conversation so we can begin to make changes.”

How to spread feminism?

There are a couple of ways in which you could start spreading feminism: —

Love yourself - At the heart of feminism is the idea that every person deserves respect and humanity. Why not start with yourself? Remove all the self shaming from your daily routine and get some self confidence. Stop worrying about what people will think about you because if they truly care about you, they will love you for who you are. “Because no matter where you run, you end up running into yourself.”

Educate yourself on Feminsim - Feminism is almost everywhere these days, and education is just a click away. There are so many videos on Ted about feminism and how different people have changed things for good. Approach it with a clear mind and debunk your brain with all the myths about feminism. Remember it is just about gender equality and humanity, nothing less and nothing more.

Talk about it - Start discussing about the common myths about feminism with your friends and ask them to spread about it. The more people that know the difference between feminism and feminazis, the better.

Start taking action - Start with yourself again. Notice if you are facing gender inequality in your daily life and speak up for your rights. If you see gender inequalities faced by someone else around you then don’t be afraid to point it out and fight against it, no matter what gender it is for.

A journey of a million miles starts with a single step. Let’s make this world beautiful together...

From a proud feminist

Aarushi